Mike’s  National Platform for 2006 1.        Corruption is rampant among elected officials in Washington D.C. and must be curbed at once.  If elected I will introduce legislation that will impose stiff penalties against all elected officials who are convicted of corruption related crimes.  Part of this legislation will designate up to one billion dollars annually to fund any operations the FBI deems necessary to locate and prosecute corrupt officials. 2.        The Federal government has completely failed in its Constitutional responsibility to protect the borders of this nation.  If elected I will immediately propose legislation that will: A.        Fund and authorize an additional 10,000 border agents to enforce the borders of this nation. B.        Fund and authorize building a wall and/or fence the entire length of the Mexican/American border to protect this nation from illegal aliens. C.        Fund and authorize the construction of sufficient holding facilities to detain anyone who is found unlawfully attempting to enter this country. D.        Ensure that Federal Programs are utilized by United States citizens only. E.        Ensure that all Federal prisoners that are illegal aliens are deported to their country of origin at the end of their sentence. F.        Impose economic sanctions against Mexico if Mexico keeps encouraging its citizens to willfully violate our laws. G.        Ensure that all Federal Law Enforcement Agents deport any illegal aliens that they apprehend in the course of their normal duties to their country of origin. H.        Designate five billion dollars to be spent by the INS to increase their enforcement of our current immigration laws. I.        Increase the criminal penalties to be applied to employers who willfully employ illegal aliens. 3.        The United States is a nation of legal immigrants.  As soon as our borders are secured I will introduce legislation that will streamline the immigration process and will double the number of legal immigrants allowed entrance to this country. 4.        The United States of America has the most complicated tax code in the world.   The current tax code is well over 60,000 pages long.  Almost 2/3 of all taxpayers hire a professional to help them prepare their tax returns each year.  There is a large and growing “underground” economy that is based on cash transactions on which no taxes are paid, this shifts more and more of the tax burden to law abiding citizens and increases the taxes of law abiding citizens.  The Federal Income tax generates about 1.25 trillion dollars of revenue; however, the cost of collecting this revenue is almost 300 billion dollars.  The entire tax code needs to be abolished and replaced with The Fair Tax. 5.        Citizens of this great nation have to live within their means and have to spend their money wisely; the same should be true of government.  Our Federal government has accumulated a current debt of well over 8 trillion dollars.  If the liabilities generated by future promises are counted this number rises to about 75 trillion dollars.  The costs of this rampant government spending will be felt most by our future generations who will have to pay astronomical taxes just to pay the interest on this massive and unconscionable debt.  I will introduce legislation that will address our past fiscal insanity by: A.        Implementing zero base line budgeting.  This will stop the measures that are currently in place to increase spending on every program by a specific amount per year. B.        Limiting Federal spending next year to the total amount spent this year.  This will force government officials to make some hard choices and to be more fiscally responsible. C.        Forcing the Federal Government to implement accrual accounting.  The Federal Government forces corporate entities to use accrual accounting since it results in a more accurate picture of your financial position each year.  The Federal government currently uses cash accounting to hide its future unfunded liabilities, this must change. D.        Requiring The Federal Government to balance its budget every year with a provision for running a budget deficit if The United States is at war with a specific country and a specific resolution is passed by a super majority in Congress and signed by The President. E.        The Federal Budget process has become a tool that our elected officials use to secure money to spend (Earmarks and Pork Barrel spending) in their Congressional Districts to ensure re-election.  Earmarks and Pork Barrel spending have both skyrocketed in recent years.  The Federal Budget process must be changed and all Earmarks and Pork Barrel spending eliminated. F.        The Federal government would change to a two year budget. G.        The Government Accountability Office produces a report at great expense to the taxpayers each year that analyzes the effectiveness of all government programs.  All programs that receive a GAO rating of ineffective for two consecutive years will be immediately eliminated. H.        Eliminate all “no-bid” contracts. 6.        Education is one of the most important factors that will determine the future success of The United States.  Real spending on education has more then tripled in the last twenty years and our students are receiving an inferior education today, even after considering the massive increase in spending on education.  The Federal No Child Left Behind Act is one of the worst violations of State’s rights in recent memory.  Education should be handled at the local level and each State should be allowed to fund their school system, regulate their school system and educate their students as they see fit.  We must fix our education system by eliminating the Federal Department of Education Entirely.  This will save at least 90 billion dollars in 2007 alone.  This will also eliminate the thousands of pages of regulations that The Federal government has imposed on the fifty states thereby allowing the fifty states to handle their own education system. 7.        The rising cost of medical care, prescription drugs, and health insurance is a large problem that can be limited.  I would immediately introduce legislation that would: A.        Require Medicare to negotiate bulk discounts with the drug companies. B.        Streamline the FDA process of approving new drugs.   C.        Require the FDA to “fast-track” the process of approving drugs for The United States market that have already been approved by The European Union. D.        Allow drugs to be imported from foreign countries to lower the cost of prescription drugs. E.        Pass legislation that will allow smaller companies to band together to form large pools so they can better negotiate for health insurance for their employees. 8.        Elected officials are supposed to represent the people who elected them to office.   Our political system has been modified to protect politicians from being voted out of office.   Incumbents win Federal election well over 90% of the time.  We must: A.        Enact term limits. B.        Repeal the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform Act.  This Act should properly be called the “Incumbent protection Act.” C.        Pass laws to prevent lobbyists from having more access to elected officials then the citizens of this country. 9.        The National Interstate System was started in 1956 and completed in 1991.   Unfortunately for taxpayers, Congress refuses to end the program.  The Federal government should turn the system over to the fifty states and admit the Interstate system is complete.  With this in mind I will introduce legislation to: A.        Abolish the Federal gas tax.  Since the Federal government will not be involved in The Interstate System it should not tax gasoline.  This will immediately lower the cost of gasoline by 18.4 cents a gallon. B.        Turn all Federal toll systems over to the fifty states. C.        Stop all future Federal spending on The Interstate System. D.        Eliminate those Federal agencies dealing with The Interstate System.  (Note The Federal Government plans on spending over 50 billion dollars on Highways and Mass Transit in 2007 alone). E.        Eliminate all subsidies to Amtrak.  Amtrak should survive as a business and should not be subsidized continuously by the taxpayers. 10.        The United States of America is a great country and we owe a great deal to those who are currently serving in our armed forces and the veterans who have served in the armed forces in the past.  We are currently asking more and more from our armed forces and we are not fulfilling our past promise to veterans; this is shameful.  I will immediately propose legislation to: A.        Form a commission that includes members of the Veterans Administration, past members of the armed forces, and current members of the armed forces.  This commission will be tasked with analyzing The Veterans Administration and determining what needs to be done to fulfill our promises to past veterans in an efficient and cost effected manner. Recently the American press and many of our elected officials have “convicted” some members of our armed forces in Iraq of war crimes without a trial of any kind.  This is wrong and must stop.  In America, all accused of a crime are “innocent until proven guilty.”   Our soldiers serving in harms way should certainly be considered “innocent until proven guilty” as well.   11.        The United States was founded on a free market model.  Congress is continually passing legislation that subsidizes certain industries with tens of billions of tax dollars collected from the rest of us.  Congress is often determining which businesses will succeed and which will fail by the legislation they enact.   Elected officials favor those industries with strong lobbyists who contribute to their re- election campaigns.  This is wrong, it is anti-American, and it is rampant.  I will introduce legislation that will: A.        Eliminate all government subsidies.  This will save The American tax payers at least 60 billion dollars per year. B.        Eliminate all farm quotas and permits.  There is no economic reason to limit the production of farm products like peanuts by allowing only a select few people to grow these crops.      Transparency Trade Gap/Policy Tort Reform Property Rights Prisons